Leg Yields (or more suitably, "Will I Be Able To Walk Tomorrow?)

It was a really rough week. I finally told my family I bought Daniel... on the one year anniversary of buying him. I got tired of carrying it around. They were surprising (to me, anyway) not surprised!! :-) The only reason I didn't tell them when I first bought him, was my brother was being mobilized from the Navy Reserves, and being sent to Afghanistan for a year. Married, 3 little kids, and being shipped off to war for a year. Nope, they didn't need to hear about me buying a horse on top of it all!

I also decided that I can't keep up this pace, and drive over 2 hours each way to see him (and as a result, only see him once a week)... so I put a deadline out there to move: the last week of April into the first week of May. I've looked at a dozen places, and leaning towards this one - http://www.sunsetvalleyfarms.com... so, barring unforeseen, in May Daniel will live about a half hour away from me. I'm petrified of moving him. I don't know what in the world I'm going to do without Leeandra there with us. She knows Daniel inside out - she retrained him as a dressage horse, after he spent 13 years or so as an Amish plow horse... she owned him for 7 years before I bought him... I hope having him close by and seeing him a couple times a week will make up for the fear I have now!

I had a bit of a shock when I went out to get Daniel today - someone had bitten him on cheek during the week. It looks like it healed well, and they someone knocked the scab off. It looked like new healthy skin, I put some Nolvasan on it, just to be safe. He's usually the boss out there, so I'm surprised he let one of the boys get a shot in like that!

In our lesson, we worked on leg yields. For a while, Leeandra took my stirrups away... all I can say is ouch! I'm sure tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be saying OUCH! While I was doing it, I was mentally saying ouch because, I'll admit, they are a crutch, and they're my security blanket. There, just call me Linus! I feel better when my toes are in stirrups!

So, we did leg yields across half of the indoor, then once we got against the wall, we'd take that to a shoulder in along the rest of the length of the wall.

After our lesson, I did a really good grooming, as best I could without a bath. I brushed out his mane and feathers, brushed him, sprayed his hooves with disinfectant (it's all muck and mud this time of year). I MTG'd his feathers to try to keep scratches at bay... He was just happy to much carrots while I did all this!!!

Then, the 2+ hour drive home.... at least no one immediately in front of me wrecked their cars!

The rolling hills of Hampstead

I have been having more and more trouble with the drive - mentally anyway. The whole time I'm in the car, I'm thinking about all the things I need to do that aren't getting done, because I'm in the car for 5 hours.

So, I talked to Leeandra about moving him this summer. I don't want to, but I can't move my house, my job and my family there... so I have to bring Daniel closer to home. It was that every place I looked at I found fault with, and now I realize that I have to look at it differently - I'm never going to find another Legacy, so I'm going to have to be happy with the trade-off of a shorter commute, and seeing my horse more often than once a week. The place I think we'll be happiest is in West Chester, PA. It's about 20 miles from my house... I loved the owners when I met them and their kids, they have big pastures, an outdoor arena, onsite trail access... no indoor and I'm not sure about a heated bathroom, but you can't have everything, right?

But, this trip was a first: I think Daniel knows my car now. I was driving in, and could see him on the hill, he lifted his head (yes, he stopped eating!) and watched my car drive into the parking lot... so, he either knows my car, or he just likes Mercedes! I got out, and called his name and he started walking to the gate!

My lesson yesterday was a tough one, for me anyway. Shoulders-in on a 20m circle (OK, so we did an oblong, more or less!) :-) Turn on the haunches, and I really tried to do a walk to canter transition but was just too tired! I did fine on the walk-trot-halt, but only got a couple strides of canter in... I'm feeling it today! He was playing with the bit alot, the big wooly mammoth! After my lesson Leeandra got on him and worked with him - half-passes, side passes, canter to halt, halt to canter. I just love that horse!

Saturday horse again!

My friend Rhoda joined me for the trip down this weekend (that's her aboard). I rode and practiced shoulders in, posting on diagonals, and pushing him up to extended trot.

The worst part of the day was the drive home. on Rt 23 and Commerce, the jackass in the full size pickup in front of us, decided to pass a van, on the shoulder of the circle! When I saw him pull out and do that, I took my foot off the gas, because I just had a feeling... sure enough, he crashed headfirst into a streetlight! the impact swayed the streetlamp forward, then it came crashing back towards us. I don't know if it was my reflexes, Mercedes' German Engineering, or both, but that light smashed down not 20 feet in front of us! The van the guy was trying to pass was gone, since he probably didn't even see what happened, and the pick-up's front, hood and cab were smashed. We both said that it served them right, but pulled over to check to see if they needed help.

Rhoda called 911 and reported it as they were getting out of their truck. We decided that since they seemed to be OK, we didn't need to hang around to be witnesses... they'd have enough fun explaining THAT without us laughing at them. Pinheads.

Saturday Horse

Daniel had the day off yesterday. There was just too much ice to even think about bringing him up to the barn. I fell 3 times myself, and the last thing I wanted was a 2200 lb horse to fall! So, I helped with barn chores (yes, city girl me helped strip stalls, fill water buckets and put up hay), then just "ice skated" down to his field.

Yesterday, he crossed the pasture to meet me at the gate!!!!

And when Lyric wanted attention too, he pinned his ears back and charged him... I guess he is getting a little possessive in his old age! I told him he shouldn't be so possessive, smiling inside that he was being so possessive!